CISTM8 Only 4 Months Away!

The International Society of Travel Medicine will hold its 8th regular conference from May 7th to 11th, meeting in the United States for the first time in twelve years, and for the very first time in New York City. Complete registration information is available on the website. Participants may register on-line, by fax or by mail. Hotel reservations for the conference at the headquarters hotel, the Marriott Marquis, in the heart of Times Square, may also be made now.

The program includes not only discussions on classic travelers' ailments such as diarrhea, dengue, and yellow fever, but will also look at more exotic issues. A plenary session will be devoted to extreme and adventure travel and will be presented by the medical director of the Titanic Salvage Expedition. This session will include new prophylaxis and treatment options in altitude-related illnesses. An expert from the King Fahad National Guard Hospital in Saudi Arabia will discuss health care problems created by large religious pilgrimages. Another plenary session will define the real risk of travel versus risk perception. Some of the popular features at past meetings - Meet the Professor, Case of the Day, and Destination-specific Workshops - will be repeated. And special for this meeting will be sessions on some of New York's notorious moments in health/travel history, including the last smallpox outbreak in New York City, vignettes about Typhoid Mary, and quarantine issues of immigrants.

The opening reception on Wednesday evening, May 7th, originally planned for Ellis Island has been shifted to the Marriott Marquis' glass-walled promenade overlooking the activity and lights of Broadway and Times Square. The shift from Ellis Island resulted from the local organizing committee reluctantly concluding that arriving participants would prefer not to have to transfer immediately to a bus and ferry for the reception. This exciting event, "Lights on Broadway/Tastes of New York" will highlight the various ethnic foods of New York City and will include music, dancing, and festivities well into the evening.

Two pre-meeting workshops on Wednesday, May 7th, will cover gastrointestinal and travel medicine questions in occupation health.

The Emory School of Medicine has designated the conference as qualifying for up to 21 hours of credit for Continuing Medical Education. Further details are available on the Web site.

Please note that the hotel reservation cutoff date is April 16.